Telegraph & Morse Code

WAVES recruting poster

Even though they had been known already for one hundred years telegraph and morse code were, in conjunction with radio, the most common methods of comunication during war time...In some cases there were entire units dedicated to the listening and the receiving of messages like for the GCHQ and the SIGINT in the UK,the FRA in Sweden, the NSA in the USA or the AT in Netherlands.
To be more precise the telegraph is way older than the morse code, there were in fact already multiple examples of this device:

• 4th century. BC, greek hydarulic telegraph descibed by Aeneas Tacticus, and in the 3rd century by the hystorian Polybious
• In the1792 the optical telegraph made its entrance in the world technological scene thanks to the french Claude Chappe and it was a precursor of its electrical version.
• It is 1832 is the when the electrical telegraph makes  its first steps into history, with the prototype presented by Schilling von Canstatt.  From that moments a lot of different evolutions of the Electrical telegraph were presented, like the Gauss-Weber (1933) or the Cooke & Weatstone (1837) 
•  But a the gratest step was made by Samuel Morse, with the development of the electro-magnetic telegraph, whose patent was registered by Morse itself on June, 20th 1940 and improved in the following years, because he didn't create just the machine, but he also introduced a specifically designed comunication method: The Morse Code. It consisted in the rappresentation of letters and numbers with a series of dots and lines properly alternated as presented in the photo below, and in the one under it (in a more grafical way which makes it easier to learn). The disposition of the characters differs in base of the language considered, but few rules stay the same, like the relative time that passes between the different letters (3 time units) or between the words (7 time units), where the time unit is defined by the gap between the different elements of the same letter.

First Patent of the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph by Samuel Morse

The Morse Code Alphabet The Morse Code in Graphical Version

Art by Ward Cunningham

"The situation is now stable, the Adenoid occupies all of St. James's, the historic buildings are no more, Government offices have been relocated, but so dispersed that communication among them is highly uncertain—postmen are being snatched off of their rounds by stiff-pimpled Adenoid tentacles of fluorescent beige, telegraph wires are apt to go down at any whim of the Adenoid."

"Shots from uphill—then, maybe from Närrisch in reply, a burst of automatic fire. Otto
is holding his Hilde close. "Anybody read Morse Code?" the girl next to Slothrop wants to
know, "because there's been a light going over there, see, at the tip of that little island? for
a few minutes now." It's three dots, dot, dot, three more dots. Over and over.
"Hmm, SEES," ponders Felix.
"Maybe they're not dots," sez the tenor-sax player, "maybe they're dashes.""

[Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon]


"In Napoléon’s time nothing could move faster than a horse,’ said Erik. ‘Today we have motor
vehicles and wireless telegraphy. Modern communications have enabled us to succeed where
Napoléon failed."

"The signals were in Morse Code, but the dots and dashes of naval signals translated into five-digit
number groups, each representing a letter, word or phrase in a code book. The apparently random
numbers were relayed by secure cable to teleprinters in the basement of the Old Administration
Building. Then the difficult part began: cracking the code.""

[Winter of the WorldI, Ken Follet]

This post argument is connected to the previous posts Secret Services & National Oganizations and SIS, aka MI6...A little bit of History, but also to the one related to Radio (Secret Services & Radio)

As usual for more specific information ccheck out both the links and the sources reported below...

Sources:

Multiples articles on both Theoretical (Foundamentals of Electromagnetism ) and Practical (Railway or Military Telegraphs) arguments
http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/tel/telhom.htm

Other sources:

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~smatei/435/techwiki/index.php?title=Morse_Code_and_the_Telegraph
http://cw.hfradio.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code
http://www.cryptomuseum.com/radio/morse/index.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphy
http://www.nearfieldcommunicationnfc.net/nfc-telegraph-history.html

Secret Services & Radio

Then at the fall of Paris, a radio transmitting station was set up on the cliff, antennas aimed at the Continent, themselves heavily guarded and their landlines back mysteriously over the downs to the house patrolled night and day by dogs specially betrayed, belted, starved into reflex leaps to kill, at any human approach.


With funding available for all manner of radars, magic 

torpedoes, aircraft and missiles, where was Pointsman in the scheme of things?

"Tides, radio interference, damned little else. There is no way for changes out there to produce changes here."

On the other side of the arch is a Russian jeep with a couple officers, one talking earnestly into the mike of his radio set, and the air between quickens with spoken Russian at the speed of light weaving a net to catch Slothrop.


At first he helped out in the propulsion group. No one was specializing yet. That came later, when the bureaus and paranoias moved in, and the organization charts became plan-views of prison cells. Kurt Mondaugen, whose field was radio electronics, could come up with solutions to cooling problems.


The Russians even had a guard posted on board for a while, till the Anubian ladies vamped them off long enough to single up all lines—and so the last long reprise of Polish homeland was on, across these water-meadows of the north, radio messages following them in clear one day and code the next, an early and shapeless situation, dithering between executioner's silence and the Big Time.

Russian transmissions come crackling out of ship's radio, and the static blows like sheets of rain.


The idea was always to carry along a fixed quantity, A. Sometimes you'd use a Wìen bridge, tuned to a certain frequency A{, whistling, heavy with omen, inside the electric corridors while outside, according to the tradition in these matters, somewhere a quantity B would be gathering, building, as the Rocket gathered speed. So, up till assigned Brennschluss velocity, "v ," electric shocked as any rat into following this very narrow mazeway of clear space—yes, radio signals from the ground would enter the Rocket body, and by reflex—literally by electric signal traveling a reflex arc—the control surfaces twitch, to steer you back on course the instant you'd begin to wander off.


But the blacks don't know what else Närrisch knew:
(a) there was a radio link from the ground to the S-Gerät but not the other way round,
(b) there was an interference problem between a servo-actuator and a special oxygen line running aft to the device from the main tank,
(c) Weissmann not only coordinated the S-Gerät project at Nordhausen, but also commanded the battery that fired Rocket 00000.
Total espionage. Bit by bit this mosaic is growing. Tchitcherine, bureauless, carries it around in his brain. Every chip and scrap belongs. More precious than Ravenna, something goes erecting against this starch-colored sky. . . .
Radio link + oxygen = afterburner of some kind.


The tail-section group has been on the radio all morning, trying to get a position fix, if the skies will only clear. So the assembly of the 00001 is occurring also in a geographical way.

[Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon]


Werner had been only fourteen years old then, but he was now eighteen, he worked at the Air Ministry, he hated the Nazis even more, and he had a powerful radio transmitter and a code book. He was resourceful and courageous, taking dreadful risks and gathering priceless information. And Volodya was his contact.


On his desk was a decrypt from the radio section, the German words pencilled letter by letter under the code groups. The message was from Werner.


Anticipating the outbreak of war, Volodya had long ago equipped his Berlin spies with clandestine radios and code books. Now it was more vital than ever that the handful of brave anti-Nazis should continue to pass information to the Soviets. Before leaving he had destroyed all records of their names and addresses, which now existed only in his head.


At home, Chuck had not said much about the navy, no doubt because their parents were still angry with him for not going to Harvard. But alone with Woody he opened up a bit. ‘Hawaii is great, but I’m really disappointed to have a shore job,’ he said. ‘I joined the navy to go to sea.’
‘What are you doing, exactly?’
‘I’m part of the Signal Intelligence Unit. We listen to radio messages, mainly from the Imperial Japanese Navy.’
‘Aren’t they in code?’
‘Yes, but you can learn a lot even without breaking the codes. It’s called traffic analysis. A sudden increase in the number of messages indicates that some action is imminent. And you learn to recognize patterns in the traffic. An amphibious landing has a distinctive configuration of signals, for example.’


We can also figure out where the signal originated, by triangulation. Given locations and the call signs, we can build up a pretty good picture of where most of the ships of the Japanese navy are, even if we can’t read the messages.’
‘So we know where they are, and what direction they’re taking, but not what their orders are,’ said Gus.
‘Frequently, yes.’
‘But if they wanted to hide from us, all they would have to do is impose radio silence.’
‘True,’ said Vandermeier. ‘If they go quiet, this whole operation becomes useless, and we are well and truly fucked up the ass.’
[...]
Gus frowned. ‘Radio silence. Has that ever happened before?’
‘Yes. Aircraft carriers go quiet when they return to home waters. So we assume that’s the explanation this time.’


Chuck was assigned to the radio room, a sensible posting that made use of his experience in
handling signals.

[Winter of the World, Ken Follet]

As it appears from the quotes extracted from the books radio had a great importance during World War II under multiple aspects, like checking enemies position (triangulation and radar) and actions (traffic analysis and signal configurations), controling the coasts, comunicating with other meber of the army or with a Soviet spy in Berlin and to control a missile and keep it on the route. There where though few problems about interferences and the fact that it can be easily tracked down.

If you wanna know more about history and functioning of Marconi's creature  check the links below:
http://s194214.blogspot.it/2013/05/la-radio.html (italian version by Alessia Rosace, 'Tecnologia e Comunicazione' blog)
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio (english version - Wikipedia page on the radio as a technology feature)



About triangulation...in the link below you can find a video about triangulation method and its aplications in time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYBbVNpMlUU


The image presents the general idea if this tracking technique










In the links below you can find more info regarding the Traffic Analysis:
http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/tech_journals/intro_traffic_analysis.pdf (NSA introduction document)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_analysis (Wikipedia presentation of its applications in the military field during WWI and WWII)

Woman radio Operator during war times

The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)...Books' Point of View

Following a list of quotes from both books but all regarding the same argument: the SIS organization, also known as S.O.E., or MI6 or The Firm (just in Pynchon's book)...Enjoy...

Pirate Prentice is a strange talent for—well, for getting inside the fantasies of others: being able, actually, to take over the burden of managing them, in this case those of an exiled Rumanian royalist who may prove needed in the very near future. It is a gift the Firm has found uncommonly useful: at this time mentally healthy leaders and other historical figures are indispensable. What better way to cup and bleed them of excess anxiety than to get someone to take over the running of their exhausting little daydreams for them ... to live in the tame green lights of their tropical refuges, in the breezes through their cabanas, to drink their tall drinks, changing your seat to face the entrances of their public places, not letting their innocence suffer any more than it already has ... to get their erections for them, at the oncome of thoughts the doctors feel are inappropriate


So of course when Pirate makes the mistake of verifying the fantasy with Loaf, it's not very long at all before higher echelons know about it too. Into the dossier it goes, and eventually the Firm, in Their tireless search for negotiable skills, will summon him under Whitehall, to observe him in his trances across the blue baize fields and the terrible paper gaming, his eyes rolled back into his head reading old, glyptic old graffiti on his own sockets. . . .
The first few times nothing clicked. The fantasies were O.K. but belonged to nobody important. But the Firm is patient, committed to the Long Run as They are.


Novi Pazar, anyhow, was still a croix mystique on the palm of Europe, and EO. finally decided to go to the Firm for help. The Firm knew just the man.


Early in 1939, he was discovered mysteriously suffocated in a bathtub full of tapioca pudding, at the home of a Certain Viscountess. Some have seen in this the hand of the Firm.


It's as useful to him as he is to the Firm—who, it is well known, will use anyone, traitors, murderers, perverts, Negroes, even women, to get what They want. They may not've been that sure of Pirate's usefulness at first, but later, as it developed, They were to grow very sure, indeed.


His best guess is that Mexico only now and then supports the Firm's latest mania, known as Operation Black Wing, in a statistical way—analyzing what foreign-morale data may come in, for instance— but someplace out at the fringes of the enterprise, as indeed Pirate finds himself here tonight, acting as go-between for Mexico and his own roommate Teddy Bloat.


There's now been no word of Slothrop for nearly a month, since the fumbling asses in military intelligence lost him in Zurich. Pointsman is a bit browned-off with the Firm. His clever strategy appears to've failed


No  one has ever left the Firm alive, no one in history—and no one ever will.

The Firm know perfectly well that you've come here. They'll expect a full report from you now. Either voluntary or some other way.

They will not understand, the gently bred maniacs of S.O.E. ah very good, Captain rattling sitreps, shuffling boots, echoes off of Government eyeglasses jolly good and why not do it actually for us sometime at the Club. . . . Pirate wants Their trust, the good-whisky-and-cured-Latakia scent of Their rough love.

Well: he guesses They have euchred Mexico into some such Byzantine exercise, probably to do with the Americans.

Like every young man growing up in England, he was conditioned to get a hardon in the presence of certain fetishes, and then conditioned to feel shame about his new reflexes. Could there be, somewhere, a dossier, could They (They?) somehow have managed to monitor everything he saw and read since puberty . . . how else would They know?

Everybody was waiting around for a Captain Prentice from S.O.E. (those
prickly bastards take their time about everything), who does presently show up. Slothrop
gets a glimpse— windburned face, big mean mother. Prentice takes the cylinder, drives
away, and that's that.

Pirate Prentice of the S.O.E. came back with the first hard intelligence that
there were indeed in Germany real Africans, Hereros, ex-colonials from South-West
Africa, somehow active in the secret-weapons program

Squalidozzi did show up again though, in Bremerhaven. He had just been chased
across what was left of Germany by British Military Intelligence, with no idea why.


For some reason now, she who never laughs has become the top surface of a deep,
rising balloon of laughter. Later as she's about to go to sleep, she will also whisper,
"Laughing," laughing again.
He will want to say, "Oh, They let you," but then again maybe They don't. But the Katje
he's talking to is already gone, and presently his own eyes have closed.

[Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas PYNCHON, ]


Also there, to Lloyd’s surprise, was Major Lowther, who had been in charge of the intelligence
course at Tŷ Gwyn, and had been snootily disapproving – or perhaps just envious – of Lloyd’s
friendship with Daisy. 
Lloyd knew that Lowthie had been posted to the British Embassy in Madrid, and guessed he
worked for MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, but he would not have expected to see him this far from the capital.

[Winter of the World, Ken FOLLET]


The argument of this post is related to the ones contained in Maps & Secret Services, The Art in the Agency and in SIS, aka MI6...A little bit of History.

Coded Messages

It always have been clear to any king, emperor or government that keeping important messages and information from falling into hostile hands, is essential for the nation,empire or reign sake in both peace and war periods. That's why each one of them has created cryptography departement since ancient times.

Following I present two tecniques for coding messages mentioned in Pynchon's book. Actually these two example refer more to Steganography rather then Criptography, which is a less efficient way to keeping a message secret, because the message is just hidden...once it's discovered it can be easily read by anyone. A solution to this problem could be combining the two techniques, creating multiple issue to deal with in forcing the message as in the Kryptosam example (last quote).

Code messages in a dozen Slavic tongues were being tattooed on bare upper lips over which the
operatives then grew mustaches, to be shaved off only by authorized crypto officers and
skin then grafted over the messages by the Firm's plastic surgeons .. . their lips were
palimpsests of secret flesh, scarred and unnaturally white, by which they all knew each
other.

Teddy Bloat's [...] packing inside his stylish kangaroohide musette bag and threaded
around the odd necessities— midget spy-camera, jar of mustache wax



"Kryptosam" is a proprietary form of stabilized tyrosine, developed by IG Farben as
part of a research contract with OKW. An activating agent is included which, in the
presence of some component of the seminal fluid to date [1934] unidentified, promotes
conversion of the tyrosine into melanin, or skin pigment. In the absence of seminal fluid,
the "Kryptosam" remains invisible. No other known reagent, among those available to
operatives in the field, will alter "Kryp-tosam" to visible melanin. It is suggested, in
cryptographic applications, that a proper stimulus be included with the message which
will reliably produce tumescence and ejaculation. A thorough knowledge of the
addressee's psychosexual profile would seem of invaluable aid.
—prof. dr. laszlo jamf, "Kryptosam" (advertising brochure), Agfa, Berlin, 1934

Enough sperm saved, though, to rub over the blank scrap  enclosed with the picture. Slowly then, a revelation through the nacreous film of his seed,  in Negro-brown, comes his message: put in a simple Nihilist transposition whose keywords he can almost guess.

[Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon]

The Nihilist Transposition is a real cripthography sample, where letters are turned into other using a row column transposition, following the pattern dictated by a Polybius square built on the base of a wordkey. Initially created by Russian spies it has been adopted also by the heads of the KGB

If you want to get into the Nihilist Transposition to know more or even learn how to use it for sending your secret messages go on and check these link below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilist_cipher
http://www.cryptogram.org/cdb/aca.info/aca.and.you/chap08.html#NIHITR

Further explanations about the difference between Cryptography and Steganography are given in the book  The Code Book, by Simon Singh, a book that I've already mentioned in the post Secrecy...Pro & Con

Minicameras...micro optics at the service of the spies

Teddy Bloat's [...] packing inside his stylish kangaroohide musette bag and threaded
around the odd necessities— midget spy-camera


Tacked to the wall next to Slothrop's desk is a map of London, which Bloat is now busy
photographing with his tiny camera [...] It takes him four exposures, click zippety
click, my how very efficient at this he's become

Quotes from Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

He has access to the entire battle plan for Case Blue. We know something about it, but Moscow
needs the details.’
Frieda was making a bewildering set of assumptions, but Carla went along with it. ‘I can ask him .
. .’
‘No. You have to make him bring you the battle plan.’
‘I’m not sure that’s possible. He’s not completely stupid. Don’t you think—’
Frieda was not even listening. ‘Then you have to photograph it,’ she interrupted. She produced
from the pocket of her uniform a stainless-steel box about Infthe size of a pack of cigarettes, but longer
and narrower. ‘This is a miniature camera specially designed for photographing documents.’ Carla
noticed the name ‘Minox’ on the side. ‘You’ll get eleven pictures on one film. Here are three films.’
She brought out three cassettes, the shape of dumbbells but small enough to fit into the little camera.
‘This is how you load the film.’ Frieda demonstrated. ‘To take a picture, you look through this
window. If you’re not sure, read this manual.’

Quote from Winter of the World by Ken Follet

Miniature cameras have revolutionized the world of espionage making some missions much faster to accomplish, but equally dangerous, and the data obtained from them more reliable and accurate.

If you're interested in miniature cameras, into their evolution, their structure and their application on the espionage field go ahead and check the link below:

http://www.faqs.org/espionage/Bl-Ch/Cameras-Miniature.html


P.S. In this blog as you can see I added a quote coming from another book which plot is set more or less in the same historical period of Gravity's Rainbow.
It is Winter of the World by Ken Follet, second chapter of the Century Trilogy, preceded by Fall of Giants. They are both historical thriller ad I found them amazing and really catching. Their dimension exceed the 800 pages, but the narration is fluent, so I haven't really felt the weight, except for the physical one!

Continues...